The city and county will share equipment and provide backup options for each other in the event of power outages, equipment failures or periods of high call volume.

The agreement will improve operations and reduce costs for both sides, preventing duplication of equipment purchases and reduce ongoing expenses for upgrading and maintaining facilities, city officials said.

Allentown city council unanimously approved the measure with little discussion tonight after superintendent of communication Mike Hilbert assured them it would not result in a reduction of services for city residents.

"This is a sharing of technology; in no way is this a merger of any services," he said. "The residents of Allentown will still get their services from the city of Allentown."

In response to a question by Councilman Peter Schweyer, Hilbert also said it will not result in a reduction of city staff.

"That's all I needed to know," Schweyer said before the vote.

Northampton County Council last month unanimously approved the purchase of $1.3 million in hardware, software and maintenance fees for a collaboration with Allentown's 911 systems.

The software will allow Allentown and the county to take each other's calls and make the systems more virtual, allowing Allentown and Northampton County to create emergency centers off-site if necessary.

Fran Dougherty, the city's managing director, previously said the collaboration will help Allentown comply with directives from the state, which has said future 911 state funding opportunities will be based on participation in regional shared services.

Allentown and Bethlehem are the last municipalities in the state to host their own 911 centers. Possible mergers have been discussed before in Bethlehem but never came to fruition.